Transmutation: The garden of golden statues
by Yuriko98
Summary: In a world where humans have elemental powers, five young people take part in a tournament to make their dreams come true. What they don't know is that said competition would make their paths cross. Pilot of a future story, based on "5 elementos", a story by Spanish comic artist Jesús García Ferrer (Jesulink).
1. Waking Up to Punch Someone's Face In

It was an early morning on the 15th of September. On this day, the first elimination round of the 33rd League of Elementals would take place. Hundreds upon thousands of youths and adults signed up for the opportunity of taking part in the most prestigious event of the Kingdom of Shiho, celebrated every five years. Glory. Fame. Unimaginable riches. Whoever prevailed over the rest would no longer have worries in their lives and their names would be engraved permanently in the annals of the Kingdom's history.

Reaching the finals would be no easy task. As the name of the tournament suggested, every single one of the participants were elementals, humans adept in using a specific element for different given situations. Any element or matter could, theoretically, be the element of a specific person: fire, water, earth and air were the four main elements, although there were others like light, shadow, plant, lightning, ice or metal. Likewise, elements that resulted from the combination of other two existed; such is the case of magma, an element derived from the union between fire and earth. There were even documented cases of elementals specializing in hair, bubblegum and proteins.

The Azure Dragon Forest was the place chosen for this first elimination round to take place. The area was one of the many forests in the Seiryu region, in the eastern quadrant of Shiho, known for being its agricultural backbone; therefore, it was no surprise that most of its inhabitants are plant and wood elementals. Opposite to this region, the industrialized region of Byakko, found in the western quadrant, was known for its high numbers of elementals adept in metal and virus techniques. The two remaining regions, Genbu and Suzaku, were respectively located in the northern and southern quadrants, and polar opposites regarding their weather: while Genbu is a cold and mountainous region, Suzaku was famous for its temperatures exceeding thirty degrees Celsius and its crystalline beaches.

A 17-year-old Espika Blumenthal was one of the thousands of plant elementals taking part in this first round. Luckily, the group she was sorted into opened the eliminatory rounds in the region she was born in, specifically a forest several kilometers away from the region's capital, where she lived: Cherry Blossom City. Since she was recognized as one of the strongest elementals of her school, she was offered the chance of signing in as a participant in the kingdom-wide tournament instead of going to school for her final year of compulsory education.

Sitting on a stump, Espika observed her future rivals. It was fascinating the way clothes and certain physical traits helped predict the element of a few contestants guided by sight alone. Espika's lime-colored eyes and her dark green hair put in a half ponytail indicated her affinity to plants, and so did her height, of five-foot-seven. Adding to her looks were clothes that seemed made of grass, including a mid-thigh skirt and a cropped short-sleeve shirt. Other additional garments included shorts beneath her skirt and boots that reached her knees.

"Is something the matter?"

Resting her head in her right hand, Espika glanced sideways towards Finster, her brother. Finster's black wavy hair, black irises and pale complexion were clear indicators that he was a shadow elemental. His choice of clothing matched the dark nature of his element, judging by his signature black hoodie, which included a symbol in an ancient language whose meaning was unknown to Espika, but was reasonably sure it meant something he would define in his own words as something "super totally ironic." As expected, both his jeans and sneakers were likewise black.

"No, nothing's wrong. I'm just feeling sleepy. I was so excited last night that I wasn't able to sleep," she answered lazily, staring at Finster inquisitively. "I don't know how you can be so calm, though."

"I'm not calm at all, I've just got a good poker face, that's all," Finster replied and stuck his tongue out. Contrary to the stereotype of someone who wields darkness as a weapon, Finster had a jolly and joking demeanor, to the point of irking several classmates of his without his knowledge. His facial expressions, rife with expression and drama, were his secret weapon to add that extra 'something' to his interactions with other people. "We have to find our two totems, but we gotta think of something beforehand, right?" After asking, he tilted his head sideways, in an apparent attempt at imitating a puppy.

For this phase, the organizers had hidden a limited number of golden statues, known as 'totems', in the depths of the Azure Dragon Forest. Those who had one of the totems would move on to the next round. However, the situation for the Blumenthal siblings was different: most shadow elementals, at a very early age, forged a bond with a person they had a special connection with. This relationship wherein a shadow elemental is connected to a so-called 'body elemental' fused the shadows of both elementals and required the shadow elemental to be within a hundred-meter radius from their body elemental, risking death if the distance between both increased. Because of the symbiotic nature of this connection, both shadow and body elementals were required to get a totem each to classify for the next round.

Despite this apparent dependency, said bond could prove beneficial for body-shadow pairs. As years went by, shadow elementals became capable of feeling what their body counterparts felt, to the point of developing an emotional and psychic link. This made it possible for these pairs to synchronize their movements and become unpredictable in combat. Such was the case of Finster and Espika, whose teamwork was such that both of them received the distinction of being the strongest elementals of their school and consequently were offered the opportunity to take part in this massive event.

"Yes, that's the plan. We have to be careful, however, who knows what kind of traps were set in the forest to make this harder for us," Espika replied, staring around to gauge their potential rivals. "Besides, the others seem to be willing to do anything to get to the finals."

"Oh, come on now. You know this place like the back of your hand," Finster pointed out. Both he and Espika were raised close to the area, so both had a slight advantage over the competition. "Want me to check things out and tell you what I see?"

"Aside from the fact that what you're proposing would be cheating… Look." Espika pointed at the direction of the security guards watching over the forest's perimeter, to prevent any unwanted eavesdroppers. "What do you think will happen if they catch you snooping around?"

"Wait, it is?" Finster opened his eyes wide open in what seemed to be a surprised look, this information was new to him and it did not take long for Espika to notice that. She smacked her forehead with her palm in slight frustration. It was perplexing how they had known each other for so long and yet some things about him still confused her. She turned to stare at him:

"Yes, it is. What were you even thinking about while they were explaining the rules?"

"Well, I was thinking of everything," Finster laughed in a very nervous and awkward manner, scratching his head. "And anything, I guess. Could you please repeat what they said? I _do_ listen to you."

Espika could not believe what she heard. Both of them had been chosen to take part in a very important event and yet Finster seemed to act in a non-caring manner.

"Alright, just so you don't mess things up for not paying attention," Espika sighed, remembering the instructions that were given several minutes earlier. "In twenty minutes they will give us the signal to enter the forest. Until then, they have placed guards and barriers to keep anyone from getting in before the round starts. Once we're in, all exits will be closed for two hours. In that timeframe, we have to get a totem each and keep them until we're out. There are no restrictions when battling, either with other elementals or the beasts they let loose in the forest."

"Ooh, I get it," Finster nodded. "It doesn't sound very hard, we can beat this without breaking a sweat, Espi. I think we just have to hide really well near two of those totems, keep an eye on them and try not to have some shmuck take them from us. Once the time runs out, we'll just have to return to the exit. Piece of cake!" Finster showed his characteristic grin, closing his eyes. Espika couldn't help but shake her head at the confidence of her brother and smiled sideways, joking along:

"Well, if you're willing to spend the two most boring hours of your life, I'm not stopping you."

"Don't worry about a thing, 'Patience' is my middle name after all." Finster laughed again, earning him a subtle skeptical look from Espika, who rolled her eyes and smiled at him in amusement, since she knew well that her shadow-bound brother was not exactly a genius in the art of waiting. "I'm curious though, what kind of opponents will we face?"

* * *

A few meters away from the siblings, two young women were waiting for the round to start. One of them had shoulder-length black hair with red dyed tips and bangs covering her right eye; clothing-wise, she wore a short-sleeved shirt that exposed her shoulders, mid-thigh shorts and boots that, much like Espika's, reached her knees. Her dark red eyes glanced around the area with a hint of boredom, observing her prospective rivals while resting an arm over her friend. The black-haired girl's friend had purple hair put in long pigtails and had blue eyes; she wore a white short-sleeved blouse with black ruffles, a plaid red skirt with shorts underneath, long white stockings and black shoes with flat soles.

"What a bore this is, I can't wait until this finally gets started." The girl with the pigtails sighed, right after a long yawn.

"I don't understand why you are in such a hurry, it's not like we are gonna have a hard time winning this." Her partner spoke, earning a friendly laugh from her friend.

"Now that's the spirit, but don't pretend you're not itching for this to start," she smirked in a very confident manner, yet with a certain hint of malice in her smile. "I can _sense_ your boredom."

The girl with black and red hair couldn't help chuckling a bit. She knew how extremely competitive her friend could be, but it was precisely her open nature that made her trust her. It had been years since that fateful night where they had met, and both could state they were the closest of friends.

"Okay, Esper, I'll admit it." She offered a sideways smile. "I want to see what lies in store for us."

Esperanza Molniya, known as 'Esper' by her acquaintances, kept her confident stare on her friend. This tournament would bring opportunities for Esper to reach the glory she so coveted. It was barely a surprise to her that, being 16 years old, she was one of the youngest candidates chosen for the eliminatory rounds, after all, the world was a place corrupted by mediocrity and she was, in the words of a couple of teachers, a true beacon of hope. Her motive was simple: winnining, and she knew the odds were on her side when it came to making it far into the competition. Unlike her, though, her friend had wildly different motivations:

"So, you think this tournament will help you find what you're looking for?"

Those few words were enough for the black-haired girl to quiet down and change her expression to that of seriousness.

"Honestly, I hope so. This tournament could be the perfect excuse to investigate in different places without raising suspicions."

"Well, certainly leaving the capital every now and then won't hurt anyone." Esper noticed that it was the first time in a long while that she had set foot out of her birthplace, Qilin City, the sprawling metropolis that occupied the central area of the Kingdom. Her friend, despite having been born in the southern Suzaku region, had lived most of her life in the same city as Esper.

Esper moved her stare from her friend to the rest of contestants. It was a scene that made Esper felt encouraged, yet simultaneously depressed her: how could it be so ridiculously easy? Most of the people she saw would have no chances in a fight against her or her friend, she surmised. It was clear to her that both of them would get to the next round.

"I wonder what the others even want." Esper muttered.

"Who knows… Most of them probably just want glory for themselves or something like that." Her friend shrugged and, taking notice of the glare Esper directed to the other contestants, stared at her friend sideways. "You should not underestimate them. As good as you are, it is possible that some of them could pose a challenge."

This comment prompted Esper to direct her gaze towards her:

"Kerket, please, the only one underestimating anybody here is you. Remember, we were born lucky." As she said that, two of Esper's fingers started projecting a crackling, indigo-colored beam between them, as if she were trying to remind her friend of something.

For most of her lifetime, Kerket Makher felt lonely due to an incident that would mark a turning point in her life. Her existence was considered to be a threat by certain people, and thus she was forced to live in the shadows, hiding her true self to avoid rejection or something worse. Nevertheless, everything changed when she met Esper. Since the day both of their paths crossed, Kerket no longer felt misunderstood and found her best friend. This reminder was enough for Kerket to smile in a self-confident manner, while gently playing with the black pendant of her scarlet-colored bracelet, a subtle reminder for her to never forget who she was and where she came from.

"Yes, I guess you're right," Kerket crossed her arms. "But it would be wise to know the enemy." It was at that moment where she noticed Esper had fixated her gaze in two other contestants. One of them was a girl with dark green hair and lime green eyes, while her partner, a boy, had black hair and clothes. It was plain to see for Kerket that these two were plant and shadow elementals, respectively. She raised an eyebrow, not understanding why Esper set her gaze on them so suddenly. "What are you looking at those two for?"

"Just look at them. Doesn't it seem unfair that there is a duo and one of them is surrounded by her element? Although, on the other hand…" Esper exhibited a wide grin, disconcerting Kerket further. "This will make our victory all the sweeter."

Poor them, they caught the attention of the wrong person, Kerket thought, unable to mutter a single word in response to Esper's observation.

"What are you thinking about?" Esper lightly elbowed Kerket and winked at her. "Are you thinking about how easy we'll have it to win this round?"

"You could say so, I almost feel sorry for the others."

Esper, feeling confident to an extreme, kept moving her gaze from one contestant to another. She stared at a person with sky blue hair put into a high ponytail and muttered again:

"Bunch of losers…"

* * *

Souji Vuoret observed the other participants from a corner in the waiting area, feeling as nervous as ever, since there was a lot at stake. After all, a major step was taken by signing up for the tournament and leaving behind the northern, snowy region of Genbu and those there who counted on Souji to become the winner of the tournament.

The temperature was admittedly much warmer than that of the Genbu region. For this reason, Souji had decided to wear lighter clothes, including a cropped black bodysuit, long gloves that covered Souji's arms from elbows to hands and left all fingers free, black form-fitting trousers with cuffs at knee level, and a couple of sandals. Lastly, the young elemental's sky-blue hair was put in a high ponytail.

_Piece of cake. 80% of them shouldn't even be here._

As much as the idea of underestimating anybody was improper, Souji did not have the impression that any particularly dangerous opponents were around. Hopefully, nobody would attempt to battle, at least not in the very first round.

_It is best to think of a strategy to deal with the remaining 20%. Remember, don't trust anybody._

Sighing deeply, Souji started preparing psychologically for what was to come. Being cautious was of the essence, as any wrong decision could result in an early elimination. A specific phrase echoed in the recesses of Souji's mind:

_I'm the only one you can trust._

* * *

A few minutes later, the man responsible for the trial of the Azure Dragon Forest organized the elementals waiting for the round to begin, all in all there were around a hundred of them. The blond man, wearing a metal mask covering his mouth, stood at the side of the main entrance to the forest, while the participants were placed in their positions.

"The first qualifying round for the 33rd League of Elementals is about to begin, everybody please stand in your positions…"

Finster, from his place beside Espika, couldn't help feeling nervous, in sharp contrast to his joking demeanor from earlier, and looked at his sister to calm his nerves a bit. Espika, breathing out, smiled confidently as she stared at the entrance in determination. She trusted she and her brother would pass to the next phase. It was the best chance she had of getting to know new places and travelling, and she was going to fight for her dream.

"Ready…"

Kerket kept her eyes trained on the entrance while keeping a serious face, she was focused on getting her totem to go to the next round, failure was not an option. Meanwhile, Esper cracked her neck and knuckles as she grinned confidently, the party was about to get started.

"Set…"

Souji nodded, keeping a face halfway between nervousness and determination. Much like Espika and Kerket, there was something worth fighting for and making it far into the tournament was the goal. There were people who counted on it, and Souji was not going to let them down.

"Go! May the trial begin!"

The many elementals ran into the looming forest, one by one. Five of them didn't know it yet, but this would be the day in which they would see their paths cross and their lives would change forever, for better or for worse.


	2. Encounters That Take Your Breath Away

A tense mood reigned over the Azure Dragon Forest. Nearly a hundred elementals had gone into the forest as their first step in making their dreams and ambitions come true. Half of them, however, would return home empty-handed. In a matter of minutes, every participant was in different areas of the dark woods, in search of the totems that would allow them to be one step closer towards classifying for the tournament. Most elementals went their own way, but others formed teams.

Such was the case of Espika and Finster.

Both elementals rushed into the forest, without a specific plan to get their two required totems. They had only 120 minutes to do so, and while their combat skills were decent, this would prove pointless if somebody else got to the totems first and hid them. The most important thing was to be quick about it.

"How do we start with this, Espi?" Finster asked his sister while both of them were running through a section of the forest slightly lit up by a few rays of light.

"Your portals could give us some advantage. We should look around caves and in the bigger holes of trees, they seem to be the most obvious hiding spots for them."

As a shadow-bound elemental, Finster had several special abilities at his disposal. He could vanish in the shadows and reappear wherever he wanted as long as his emerging location was close enough and there were shadows around. A technique often used by Finster was the so-called creation of 'shadow portals', through which he could warp to any point in his field of vision. An additional utility to these portals involved Finster taking anybody holding on to him through them; both siblings used this technique to travel fast or catch opponents off-guard, as they used to do in their Combat classes.

"Leave it up to me," Finster nodded and smiled confidently, stopping in his tracks. "Wherever you wish, that's where we'll be. Oh! Look at the rhyme!" Finster clapped in amusement, proud of his unintentional rhyme. Espika giggled at that, her brother always knew how to lighten up a situation as tense as the one they were in.

"There's a waterfall over there," Espika pointed to her left, where a small waterfall could be seen from a distance, almost hidden among the trees. "Probably there's a totem in there."

"Alrighty, the Finster Express is departing towards the Mysterious Waterfall. All onboard!" Finster declared with a jolly tone of voice. His right hand started channeling his moles, the name given to the energy elementals had in their bodies. through which their elements could be used. A portal as dark as the night sky formed in front of Finster's hand. Said portal was big enough to allow any person passage through it.

Lastly, he extended his left hand towards Espika, who held it as she tended to do. Finster went through the dark gateway, taking his sister through it. Both siblings disappeared inside the portal, which faded away instantly.

* * *

In a farther region of the Azure Dragon Forest, Kerket made her way through the darkest sections of the foliage. Once in a while, she stopped in her tracks to look inside hollow trees or in places she thought a totem could have been placed, to no avail. She had to admit that the place was quite interesting, she had never been in a forest as big as this one in her entire life. After all, Qilin City lacked any sorts of woods and the region she was born in did not have that many, at least none as immense as this one.

She kept a watchful eye on her surroundings, paying close attention in case any other contestant could have a surprise attack in store. At this point, she was more than capable of reacting on time against any problem or threat; nevertheless, she would rather avoid any unneeded conflict if it was possible. She kept her guard up as she jumped out of the tree-covered area to a clearing, momentarily distracted as she pondered where she could go.

A sudden, distant noise interrupted her thoughts.

Kerket had no time to identify the source of the noise, whether it was one of the beasts that dwelled in the forest or another elemental. Before reacting, she tried to listen closely so as to ascertain what sort of noise it was.

Two human voices, both apparently belonging to males, could be heard from the direction where the noise came from. Both voices laughed heartily, making their presence known.

Kerket was in no mood for a fight. She decided to hide and thus climbed up a tree, using the shadows of the area to her advantage. She was not going to start a fight, especially against more than one opponent. Still, it wasn't unwise to learn more about the enemy and, if it was possible, to do some reconnaissance about the possible locations of some totems. In absolute quiet, she stood on the tallest branch of the tree, keeping her eyes trained on the direction where the voices could be heard.

Two young men, apparently of Kerket's age, came out of the foliage. One of them had spiky blond hair, with a yellow short-sleeved t-shirt bearing the drawing of a gray cloud with a single yellow lightning bolt, and a necklace with yet another yellow bolt. He also wore black bracelets, torn blue jeans and red sneakers. The other person had short white hair put in such a way that a short fringe covered his forehead and two locks, longer than the rest, fell on either side of his nose. A striped white and gray scarf, a white long-sleeved t-shirt, black jeans and gray sports shoes were the clothing of choice of this other young man for this forest trial.

Kerket intently listened to the conversation the two were having. Her muscles tensed, as she got ready to either fight or flee, depending on how the situation turned out.

"Hey, Thunder," the white-haired boy looked at his blond companion sideways, whose name and looks seemed to indicate he was an elemental with lightning affinity. "We've been looking for quite a while and there's no totem in sight."

Thunder, keeping a very serious look on his face and walking slowly beside his friend, looked at the latter through the corner of his eye.

"Calm down, Sheetson," Thunder said. "We can make it to next round as long as we defeat the others. Non-lethally, of course."

"Whatever," Sheetson sighed, "You know I could always use a level 2 technique to scan my surroundings."

Kerket got even more tense but did not move an inch. Judging by the white-haired boy's rather… interesting name, his clothes and what he said last, he seemed to be an elemental specialized in paper.

The concept of the five levels was considered to be the groundwork for elemental-to-elemental combats. Kerket was familiar with the fundamentals of this theory. The idea was simple: the number indicated the quantity of moles required to use a specific technique; the lower the number, the less energy was spent by the elemental. However, contrary to what might seem at first, a low number did not mean the attack would always be weak, as with enough training, a level 1 technique could be quite lethal. Level 1 techniques involved melee or defensive abilities that always originated from one's own body, thus the amount of energy spent was relatively low. Kerket knew a level 2 technique always implied a long-distance attack. It was entirely possible that the white-haired elemental would be able to throw an elemental attack from where he was. Not only that: if he had enough control over his element, he would be able to form an attack right beside her.

"Why are you so eager to steal the spotlight? Just go to Paperworld and let me think a bit," Thunder kept staring at his front, keeping a serious visage,

"I even told you I can put the totems we find in Paperworld and just have us both win, but no… _you_ are the one who likes the attention," Sheetson sighed and turned his head to face Thunder. "And I'm sorry, but I can't leave you here thinking, the tournament'll end by the time you get an idea."

"We have no time to lose. We should start fighting and taking down the competition. Non-lethally," for this last word, Thunder's voice suddenly turned into a whisper, before raising his voice again, as in trying to get somebody's attention:

"That way we can get to the Olympus of Lightning and meet the kings in person!" Thunder grinned widely and turned around, pointing with his finger to a different point of the clearing. "You can come out now!"

Kerket noticed Thunder's finger was pointing in her general direction. She got ready to fight, intending on ending this as soon as possible.

To her surprise, however, a figure appeared underneath her hiding spot. It was an elemental with sky blue hair in a high ponytail, teal eyes and interesting clothing. Kerket could not help but thinking she had seen this person before, when they were about to enter the woods.

She stayed where she was, observing what came of this.

* * *

Souji has had a quite rocky start in this trial, rife with unforeseen difficulties, but due to a stroke of luck the obstacle was overcome. However, it appeared yet another problem was in sight, as Souji noticed there were two elementals in front and a fight was probably going to start. Fighting was not something the blue-haired elemental wanted to do. The two other elementals received a courteous handwave instead.

"Hello, forest fairy," the blonde spoke to Souji while making a strange symbol with his right hand, joining his index and middle finger and holding them apart from his too joined ring and little fingers. This confused Souji, who could only blink in response. The white-haired elemental beside the blonde sighed, taking a hand to his face in exasperation, and continued:

"Have you been listening to everything me and my friend Thunder have said?" The white-haired boy observed Souji with his arms crossed over his chest. Meanwhile, Thunder's fists started crackling with sparks.

"A bit, yes," Souji nodded and shrugged, reasonably sure that nothing wrong had been done. A feeling of nervousness did kick in, as the situation was tense as it was.

"Then you know that only two of us can remain standing. And I'm sorry, but this doesn't include you. En garde!"

Sheetson instantly formed several paper throwing stars and flung them towards Souji, who reacted by creating a wall made of a viscous, slimy material that stopped the stars and dissolved them.

"Careful, Sheetson, I heard snot elementals are very dangerous," Thunder commented.

"That's more acid than snot! How the hell can _snot_ dissolve anything!?" Sheetson asked screaming.

"Acid…?" Souji asked with an expression of confusion, complete with a tilting head. Comments referring to Souji as a snot elemental were quite common, but nobody had ever used acid before.

_Ignorance creates fear. Confusion will be your greatest weapon._

Exactly, Souji thought, if those two wanted to fight badly, there was no other choice. Leaving all nervousness aside, Souji smiled confidently and got ready for battle.

* * *

"Acid elementals? I haven't ever heard about anyone using such an element. How can anybody like this even exist?" Kerket thought as she observed the scene from where she was. Time was running out and she needed to get a totem, but this caught her eye. She kept thinking how, even though she knew there were going to be powerful adversaries, this could represent a possible future threat.

The next thing she observed was the blonde crossing his arms, closing his eyes and suddenly screaming out:

"Level 2! Wrath of the 30,000 Electrical Gods!" Thunder put his hands together and threw a lightning bolt with a rather strange figure in Souji's direction, who dodged the attack.

At this moment, Kerket realized that Sheetson had moved from his initial position and prepared an additional attack. A large number of origami butterflies, too many to count, appeared all around Souji. Kerket recognized this as a particularly powerful Level 2 technique, as it was practically impossible to escape at this point and the cuts provoked by the butterflies could prove quite dangerous.

When the paper butterflies all flew towards Souji at high speeds, more slimy matter emerged from the elemental's back, stretching and catching every paper butterfly without being harmed.

"What the…" Sheetson muttered in disbelief. "They just stuck to it?"

An interested Kerket observed the scene. The sole fact that anybody could stop an attack like this was something to behold. Normally years of training would be required to pull this off, and this young person, despite seeming to be of Kerket's age, could do it without breaking a sweat.

That's not acid at all, Kerket thought. What in the world is that power?

At some point, Souji's ponytail had come undone, leaving long strands of sky-blue hair loose. Even from where she was, Kerket could notice something in the young elemental's stare had changed. It was a cold and calculating stare, proper of somebody who had grown weary of the situation.

Without uttering so much as a single word, Souji flung each one of the butterflies back at both opponents.

Thunder reacted quickly by creating an electrical field that burned off the projectiles. Sheetson was incapable of moving. It seemed that the white-haired youth did not expect this.

"I see you're itching to fight," Souji spoke. Something in the voice had changed, but Kerket could not put a finger on what it was.

Souji moved his neck sideways, making a cracking noise, and keeping his eyes on Thunder and Sheetson:

"I'll be happy to oblige," Souji smirked.

Sheetson remained in shock, Kerket could not blame him. After all, abilities such as Souji's were out of the ordinary. She was unable to take her eyes off theh blue-haired elemental.

What the…? What happened to this guy? It's as if there were somebody else here, Kerket thought to herself.

"What's going on? It's like a completely different person!" Sheetson shouted out loud, every fiber of his body in tension.

"Well, I ain't seein' anything different, to be honest," Thunder answered while crossing his arms. This earned him a disbelieving stare from his friend.

Souji took advantage of this distraction and leapt towards Thunder with his arms transformed into that viscous material, in an attempt to attack the lightning elemental. Souji's movement speed was such that even Kerket had problems following it.

Thunder stepped away from the trajectory of Souji's attack. The latter elemental, however, seemed to have expected that. Thunder's eyes locked with Souji's, whose long, flowing hair had transformed into slime. Kerket kept observing the entire scene in disbelief, she _was_ expecting powerful opponents to be around, but this was concerning even by her standards.

"Look out!" Sheetson screamed, reacting fast enough to get in the way of Souji's attack and protect his friend. This selfless act of sacrifice had gotten his right arm stuck in the slimy matter. "What the…!?"

Kerket continued eavesdropping on the battle. Sheetson had fallen prey to this adhesive goo and was now at the mercy of his blue-haired opponent, who started approaching slowly, with slime-like hair strands holding Sheetson down. Kerket noticed a certain look of amusement in Souji's face, as if it were a predator having fun with their prey. Was it really the same meek person from a few minutes ago?

"Hold on a second," Thunder spoke out loud, keeping his eyes on Souji, "I understand your frustration. It must be no fun being born a snot elemental. But it's important for you to accept yourself for who you are. After all, without boogers, we would fall pray to the many viruses that enter our nostrils. Yes, virus users are quite the nasty bunch," Thunder said, in an attempt to calm Souji down. Kerket got even more nervous, she knew this was not going to end well.

"That's not snot, you dense…!"

Both of Souji's slimy arms stretched and blocked both opponents' mouths and noses. Kerket felt alarmed at this sight, there was a clear difference between simply battling and trying to outright kill people; it seemed that there was no way for the two of them to free themselves from the technique. She couldn't allow this to happen, so she got ready to intervene. She created a fireball in her left hand, in the meantime.

After a couple of seconds that might as well have been hours for the couple of young elementals, both were finally let go. It seemed Souji had a change of heart at last minute. Keeping a cold stare towards the pair, the blue-haired elemental declared:

"If that's the best you can do, you'd better quit while you're ahead. I've got bigger fish to fry."

Sheetson could only stare, breathing heavily and standing up. Thunder did the same. He was about to reply when Sheetson put his hand over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything.

"We're leaving now, Thunder," Sheetson said with some effort, still trying to catch his breath. The blonde appeared to try to say something from underneath Sheetson's hand while his eyes stared at his friend. It seemed the situation could get worse had he been allowed to speak. Thunder nodded, as Sheetson put his hand away and took Thunder through the forest without saying a word.

Kerket was still processing what just occurred. Esper was sure that both of them would pass the forest trial without a hitch, but an opponent like this could prove to be a major obstacle in their path. Considering her options, she decided to escape for now to keep searching for her totem. There was still time to find her totem, she was sure of it. She saw Souji, who was stretching as if this had been a mere warm-up session and was about to jump to another tree. She turned her head to see any possible routes and, once she decided which path she was going to take, she decided to shoot one last glance at the potential enemy.

Souji's and Kerket's eyes met.

This moment seemed like an eternity to Kerket. She was sure that escaping wasn't an option due to Souji's high speeds during the battle. It seemed her only options were either to fight or, as she hoped, try talking her way out of this. Kerket closed her hands into fists from the branch where she was, prepared for what was to come.

"Hi! Were you looking?" Souji asked nicely, using some slime to put the high ponytail back on. "You can come down now, don't worry."

This was quite unexpected for the black-haired girl. While it was true that this was an outcome she preferred, the situation was quite disconcerting to her. She couldn't do anything else but wave at Souji from a distance, not knowing if climbing down the tree was the most cautious of choices. It was possible she was being lured into a trap.

"Have you found your totem too?" Souji asked.

_Too_. Was it possible that the other elemental had already found a totem even though the trial had just started? Then again, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if that was the case, as she had seen Souji's battle prowess. She didn't feel any hostility, thus she decided to get down from the tree cautiously and, while keeping her distance, shook her head.

"No, I still haven't found one, unfortunately," Kerket answered and crossed her arms over her chest. "If you already got one of your one, you're either really lucky or really fast."

Souji laughed with a hint of discomfort:

"I don't know what to say, I only looked around and in a matter of minutes I got to one in a cave. Thing is… well… once I took it, the entrance collapsed."

Kerket raised an eyebrow and inspected this strange individual from head to toe. There were no bruises, wounds, cuts, smudges of dirt or any other signs of having gone through such a situation. Souji's calm behavior confused Kerket, overall. She didn't know what to answer, but replied in a polite manner in spite of that:

"I suppose it makes sense, they did tell us a few of them would trigger traps."

"Yes, I should have imagined that…" Souji smiled. This stumped Kerket even more, especially remembering what had happened with those two lightning and paper elementals. What in the world had happened there? She saw somebody who was an actual threat become someone who could be seemingly harmless/didn't seem able to hurt a fly.

"But well, I was able to make my way out," Souji continued explaining to a silent Kerket, while looking down and smiling. "If you have problems… and if you don't mind, I could help you find a totem, if that's ok with you?"

Kerket hesitated at this offer. This could perfectly be a trap, although, as they say, it's wise to keep your allies close, and your enemies even closer. Additionally, she judged she would rather have someone like this as an ally rather than a possible opponent. After thinking about it for a while, she offered Souji a sideways smile and replied:

"Sure, it would be good to have some extra help."

Upon hearing this, Souji's face lit up. There was something in that smile that slightly calmed Kerket, although she kept her guard up lest she be stabbed in the back.

"We can look around the quicksand area, I'm sure we can find something interesting there," Souji suggested. Kerket could only shrug at this proposal.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to take a look there."

"Souji," said the blue-haired elemental to Kerket, who could only look at him in confusion. Noticing this, Souji cleared his throat to speak more clearly. "Souji, my name is Souji. It… it's an honor to meet you."

Instantly, Souji bowed in an apparent act of respect, looking down in that position. Kerket felt even more flummoxed at this act.

"Oh, mmm… My name's Kerket, pleased to meet you," not knowing what to do, she bowed her head slightly. She couldn't remember ever being in a situation like this one.

Souji stopped bowing and giggled in a friendly manner, turning around and pointing at the right:

"It's over there. Let's go."

Instead of leading Kerket or just following her from behind, Souji decided to be at her side. Kerket stared sideways, still confused as to how she was supposed to react.

As both of them walked towards the direction the quicksand area was purportedly located, Kerket kept inspecting Souji through the corner of her eye. It was possible that it indeed was a trap, she couldn't fully trust a stranger; nevertheless, something in her had prompted her to trust this strange youth.

* * *

In the deepest reaches of the forest, there was complete darkness. The tall trees seemed to ascend to the heavens and very few rays of light fell through the leaves. The Azure Dragon Forest was known for its innermost areas, where the most absolute of silences was commonplace and where several fearsome beasts could potentially appear if their calm was interrupted. There were birds in the tallest branches. They were generally quiet creatures who rested on the trees, but they had started to fly away in flocks.

An explosion obliterated the stillness.

From a point of the dark forest where several trees had been burned and others toppled down due to the strength of the explosion, Esper backflipped away. Landing on her feet, she kept her eyes on the point where she backed away from. It seemed she had overdone it a little this time, it was difficult to restrain oneself in a battle sometimes.

"Dammit, I don't understand. How could you have possibly done that?"

Out of the smoke emerged a woman around Esper's age. She had shoulder-length dark blue hair with a snowflake-shaped pin. She wore a tank top, jeans, and boots, several bruises and slash marks could be noticed in her arms.

"You didn't even use fire," the blue-haired girl asked between pants and launched several ice needles towards Esper. "How did you do it!?"

Esper grinned widely. She loved the desperate scowls in her opponents' faces, it was a sensation that made her feel powerful. She was sure she would never get tired of this. Ice needles fired out of impulse? Piece of cake. She dodged most of the icy shards and, covering her hand in a crackling indigo element, swiped away the remaining projectiles. The sound Esper's element made was similar to buzzing, getting stronger as it melted the other girl's attack.

"If lightning falls in a forest…" Esper answered and immediately ran towards her foe with her hand covered in that element, "there will be fire!"

Esper's speed was such that the blue-haired opponent was caught off-guard and barely managed to get out of the way. Esper reacted using a level 2 technique of her own: a dark blue stream of lightning appeared close to her target and vanished before it hit her. It was a clear threat that had its intended effect: Esper had managed to, quite ironically, freeze the ice elemental with fear.

Esper stared at her and laughed with a tone of superiority, almost covering her mouth with her hand:

"While we're at it, hand me over your totem. I think the winner of this little skirmish is more than clear."

After hearing these words, the other girl showed both rage and dread in her visage, realizing she could not defeat her opponent. Esper enjoyed inciting fear in any poor schmuck who would challenge her to battle. However, there was a lot at stake this time.

"Hey, calm down, I'm no murderer," Esper answered laughing, although anybody who saw this scene would have noticed that said laugh was absolutely forced. "That doesn't mean that I won't take it by force, though. Your call."

"Why don't you find one for yourself!? It's obvious you're not an average fighter, why do you have to do this!?" the blue-haired girl answered. This earned her a condescending glare from her, as there was nothing lower to her than people this weak:

"If you see someone taking something you want away from you… would you allow them to? There are so few totems for so many people, why would I let _you_ take something I desire?"

The venom in Esper's words made the blue-haired girl flinch instinctively and press her lips into a thin line. The look in her eyes said it all: there is no way I can beat someone this strong. After a few more seconds, she put her hand inside a bag she was carrying and threw a golden statue towards Esper. Without saying anything else, she ran immediately in the opposite direction, leaving Esper with her prize.

"You better run, coward…" Esper said with a taste of disgust in her mouth. She laid her eyes on the totem for a while and picked it up. "Another one."

Esper opened the bag and put the totem inside, along with the other three she had taken by force from other competitors at the beginning of this round.

"May the best win."


	3. Redhead Is Forced to Watch Vines

The sound of a waterfall was the only thing that could be heard in one of the outermost areas of the forest. Morning rays fell over the small lake in which the waterfall ended, surrounded by foliage and paths that lead to the depths of the large forest.

A dark portal opened a few meters away from the waterfall, in a tree-lined cliff. From it, Finster and Espika emerged, the latter holding the former's hand.

"The train has reached its destination, dear passenger," said Finster happily, displaying his wide grin once again. Espika giggled and, letting go of her brother's hand, patted his head as she always did when he showed that smile. Once she stopped playing with his hair, Finster raised a fist upwards in excitement for everything that was to come. He continued speaking:

"Okay, now let's go find that totem! We have to go behind the waterfall, I think. But, what if it's a trap?" Finster placed a hand on his chin and an exaggerated grimace formed on his face, as if he were thinking heavily. "There may be opponents right around the corner."

"It's a risk we're going to have to take, don't you think?" Espika smiled peacefully, in stark contrast with her brother's signature histrionics. "Besides, it wouldn't be the first time we're facing wild beasts. There's no need to worry."

"Actually I was referring to other elementals," Finster pointed out while smiling at his sister. In the same way that Espika felt lightened up when he did one of his many attempts at jokes or bad puns, his sister's smile soothed him. "But we can overcome just about anything. We can always take them by surprise using our C Technique."

"They always fall for that one," Espika replied with a chuckle.

The Blumenthal siblings had spent a bit over a decade fighting as a duo. Thanks to the special benefits of a relationship between a shadow elemental and a body elemental, both of them could perform a series of attacks by combining their elements. Throughout the years, Espika and Finster had created a long list of combination techniques, each one bearing a letter or an improvised set of words as a name. They had always been together, and this time they had to stay united to obtain their two totems.

Finster nodded with another one of his grins and vanished in the shadows, leaving Espika to take a look around the place.

At first sight, it seemed like there wasn't much of interest. The lake's water was clear enough to see that there were no shiny objects in it, and the empathy she had with her element helped speed up Espika's search among the foliage and trees, with it yielding no results. Lastly, she decided to approach the waterfall through a cliff that lead to it. Using her element, she used large leaves from some nearby plants to cover herself, and went behind the waterfall, entering a hidden grotto behind it.

Espika felt her heart skip a beat as she saw one of the golden statues placed on a pedestal at the other point of the grotto. As she approached the silvery stand, she kept her guard up in case there were traps lying around. She took the totem and stored it in a small sack she had strapped on her waist. No trap was triggered by this action; which made the girl sigh in relief. After this, there would be only one totem left for both of them to move on to the next round.

"That went well," Espika smiled in satisfaction and exited the place.

To her surprise, there was someone waiting for her outside.

It was a red-haired man who could perfectly be her father's age, wearing a red military uniform. He stood with arms crossed, while looking up at Espika with a confident smile, his red eyes meeting Espika's lime green eyes.

"I should give you my thanks. I'm a fire elemental, so I don't exactly get along with water," the redhead said while staring at Espika confidently and extending his arm, as if both of them had known each other for a very long time. "Now, do me a favor and throw me the totem from where you are. Your help would be most appreciated."

Espika looked at him in bewilderment, feeling slightly upset. Who did this man think he was?

"Why would I do that?" she asked.

"I have to provide to my wife and… ehh… I think I have a kid?" the stranger sounded doubtful regarding the last part. "It doesn't matter. This country needs your help, citizen," he said while lighting up his fists in flames, "I see that you're a plant elemental. I think you know well who is at an advantage here."

Espika frowned. _He _thinks_ he has a child? What an imbecile_, she thought.

"It's not the element that matters, but the way that you use it. I think this country can do well enough without me giving my totem to someone who can't find his own and has to take it from another person." Espika did not budge an inch, keeping both stance and stare unwavering. The connection she had with Finster allowed her to feel what he did, and the feelings she sensed from her brother, still hidden in the shadows, were of outrage. It was not the most pleasant feeling in the world when her brother felt this way.

"I see," the fire elemental said, after a sigh of resignation. "You'll rue the day you incurred the wrath of the great soldier November, of the Red Division!"

November, as the man claimed to be named, leaped with his fists cloaked in flames towards Espika, who reacted rising a wall of plants to block the attack.

"You arrogant fool!" November screamed as he punched the plants. To his surprise, the plants resisted his flames.

Espika knew that using common plant techniques to stop a fire attack was useless, thus she had trained for years to perform a level 2 defensive technique. Via said technique, she was able to create a barrier of fire-resistant plants to block attacks from fire elementals and catch them off guard.

November continued his assault, seemingly unable to understand why the plants were not burning as he expected. Regardless of how much energy the enemy used in his attacks, Espika applied more moles to increase her wall's defensive power. Attacking was not something Espika liked to do, and she preferred to think of herself as a pacifist. She left most of the attacks to a certain person.

At that moment, Finster emerged from the plant formation, with a sickle in each hand to slash November. His body was halfway merged with the shadows of Espika's wall, making his apparition sudden.

November barely had time to dodge. He managed to step aside, but received a slash in the right side of his face. The fire elemental glared at Finster in seething rage, while the latter jumped out of the plant barrier and placed his feet on the ground.

"What's wrong, soldier? Is a cut in your face too much for you?" Finster asked mockingly. The dry tone in his voice was something Espika had seldom seen, and she could feel the rage in Finster build up.

"You brat, you don't know who you are messing with," November replied with a growl, appearing to feel humiliated by this. He set his hands ablaze once more and leaped to attack, this time changing his target to the boy who appeared out of nowhere.

"I don't think so!" Espika screamed and transformed her arms into vines, grabbing the soldier's arms firmly and stopping him.

"I'm messing with someone who got his face cut by a brat, it seems," Finster answered before using a level 2 technique to call forth several shades that enveloped November's legs. If Espika had already managed to stop his attack, Finster had completely restricted his movement. Indeed, November was squirming, unable to free himself from the two-element attack. "He's all yours, Espika!"

"On it!" Espika nodded and used her vines to lift the redhead soldier up to the tallest part of a tree. Through her affinity with plants, she controlled the tree's branches to tie him up in such a way that November was completely restrained, without the possibility of freeing himself by setting his fists on fire. In addition, she called forth fire-resistant vines from the earth below that climbed up the tree to further limit his movement, as she knew there was the possibility of him turning his whole body into flames. It was not in her plans to continue with an unnecessary battle, she would leave him there and that was it. There was just one more thing left to do.

"I think we'll just leave him up there so he doesn't bother anymore, don't you think?" Espika approached her brother laughing and put her arm around his neck. She couldn't help feeling overwhelmed by the negative emotions he had, and the best she could do was calm him down.

Finster sighed, and Espika noticed how his anger was dying little by little. He was still angry, but they couldn't afford getting distracted in a moment like this.

"Yes, let's go," Finster answered. "We still have to find my totem, where do we go?"

"We can try looking around any nearby cavern, maybe we'll have some luck," Espika took him by his hand and moved away from a screaming November who still tried to free himself. Both siblings ignored his threats.

"I got an idea," Finster interrupted. "We're gonna warp to… that point over there," he pointed towards a direction that lead to the depths of the forest and, with his remaining hand, he opened a dark portal. There were good chances of finding something interesting there.

Espika nodded without saying anything and let her brother take her through the portal, which vanished in the wind once both had entered.

* * *

Souji and Kerket walked through a section of the forest illuminated by rays of light, an indicator that this was a section close to one of the exits. There was a more reduced quantity of trees in comparison to the rest of the location, this helped Souji find his way quicker. When the trial started, he had gone through the area and noticed a quicksand area before moving to a place where he found his totem.

He observed Kerket, who had remained quiet during all the walk. She seemed to be looking around, Souji did not know whether this was due to her looking for totems or to prevent surprise attacks. The blue-haired elemental couldn't help feeling a certain feeling of awkwardness. He wanted to speak to her and meet a possible new friend, but he noticed her to be quite distant. It was to be expected, since none of them knew each other's names a few minutes ago and there was practically no trust, but this tense silence was concerning to Souji.

"Are you… are you okay?" Souji stuttered in an attempt to break the ice.

Kerket looked at Souji in confusion.

"Yes, I am. Why the question?"

"Well, I don't know," Souji replied, his voice tinged with a dubitative and insecure tone. "I notice you're keeping your guard up around me. Although I do understand," he looked downwards, unable to look her in the eyes, "it's difficult to trust everybody in these tournaments."

"You said it. You can never know the intentions of the person beside you."

Souji laughed nervously hearing that answer.

"Yes. I'm sorry, it was a stupid question."

Kerket could only offer a slight smile in return, without saying anything else. Souji didn't know how to carry on with this attempted conversation, maybe it was best to just let go. It was true: Souji only had himself to count on for this competition.

Fortunately, it didn't take long before Souji knew they were in the place where he sought to take the other elemental along.

"Look, over there," Souji pointed to the distance, towards an area where the number of trees had dwindled completely. It was a wide open space where no vegetation whatsoever grew. "Be careful, this is quicksand."

Kerket nodded once Souji spoke, making the latter feel happy. Helping others was fulfilling and made him feel happy. Despite his instincts, Souji constantly found himself helping out anyone who crossed his path, sometimes to the point of sacrificing his own well-being. While some lauded this as a virtue, others kept reminding him that it was a fault due to how far he went to help others.

"So," Kerket spoke, "do you think there is a totem around here?"

"The normal thing to do is place objects in hard-to-reach locations. There should be one of them here," Souji replied. He was hoping she didn't ask him how he knew one of the golden statues was in the quicksand. It was something difficult to explain and he would rather keep some information hidden than otherwise risk having other people avoid him.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Kerket nodded. "I'll look around."

Souji saw the other girl walk faster towards the quicksand. He couldn't blame her: time was running out and he understood she wasn't going to risk elimination. Taking a deep breath, he followed her at a quicker pace to avoid falling behind.

Without both of them knowing, there was somebody else watching them from afar.

_Just what I wanted. These two brats will lead me to my totem._

* * *

Finster's shadow portal lead the pair to a deeper area of the forest. Very little light fell through the treetops and the silence was, as par the course for the location, absolute. However, there was something that immediately caught the attention of both, especially Espika's.

There were several fallen trees and many more burnt, as if an explosion had occurred.

"Oh my…" Espika looked at her surroundings, unable to hide her sorrow. "What happened here?"

Finster found himself unable to say anything. He understood that his sister, due to her being a plant elemental, had a special affinity to the trees of this forest. He could feel her pain, as she approached one of the burnt trees and placed her hand in it, giving a bit of her life energy to help it recover. The attempt was a success, judging by the green branches that sprouted in several parts of the damaged tree.

"Espi…" Finster said, worried at seeing his sister like that.

A loud noise broke the silence.

Both turned around to see what it could be. It seemed to be the sound of an explosion. This would explain the current state of this place. Finster was put on edge and dashed off to the source of the noise. As he did, he shouted at his also surprised sister:

"Don't move! I'll be right back!"

"Huh?! Hey, Finster! Wait!" he heard at a distance behind him. He knew he couldn't stop her, but he at least wanted that, in case of there being any danger, he would be able to see it beforehand and warn his sister. He kept running around the trees, without realizing there was somebody standing before him…

Crash!

Finster fell backwards, landing on his back. Espika was right behind him; she was able to catch up to him running. Both siblings looked at the person whom Finster had bumped into.

It was a girl who seemed to be around her age, with purple hair in pigtails and whose choice of clothing was elegant. Unlike Finster, she did not hit the ground and had managed to keep her balance. Nevertheless, she returned both siblings a glare full of what seemed to be disgust.

"What the hell? Who are you two?" the other girl growled. The most intimidating aspect about her expression was the threatening sensation she gave without the need of frowning. Finster knew then that he had to walk on eggshells, as there was something clear about her: she was responsible for the explosions that occurred in this place.

"I'm sorry…" Finster stood up and stuttered, not knowing what to do to alleviate the situation. "We are…"

"No, you know what? I don't give a crap about your names," her fists immediately were surrounded by what seemed to be indigo-colored sparks. It appeared she was a lightning elemental. "You're gonna tell me what you're doing here."

Espika frowned, clearly upset by this new person's attitude, and replied:

"Same as you, we're looking for the trial totems."

One of the many things Finster valued about his sister was her ability to keep calm and remain diplomatic in the face of aggressiveness and irrational behaviors from other people. It was particularly in situations like this in that this quality could help both of them to avoid falling into hot water.

"How cute, thinking I'm still looking for mine," the purple-haired girl smirked in a very unsettling manner. "With four of them I have more than enough to make it to the next round."

_Four totems?_ Finster felt stressed at hearing these words. Was it a bluff? The tournament's rules did not forbid anyone from collecting more than a single statue, although on the other hand, Finster did not pay much attention when the rules were being said out loud. _Damn it_, he thought, _if there are other contestants taking more totems and keeping them, we won't make it._

"You know, I could feel generous and just go ahead and give you one of them, but it won't come easy. Entertain me and I'll give you a totem. But if you lose…" the girl with pigtails pointed a finger at them both, "you'll be giving me yours."

"How do you know we have one?" Finster answered in an impulsive manner, and the exasperated stare from Espika made the shadow elemental's heart skip a beat.

"Because you just told me, idiot. What's it gonna be then?" the purple-haired opponent laughed, keeping a satisfied and cocky expression.

Espika looked at Finster for a while. He could read her mind: it was a fool's errand to try and battle for something they could get on their own, albeit with some effort. However, there was the possibility that this stranger would attack them if they said no.

The other girl leaped to attack Finster with her spark-covered fists, without waiting for an answer. Her speed was such that Finster was close to getting hit; he could only get out of harm's way due to his instinctive reaction of hiding in the shadows. He reappeared quickly beside his sister, who kept her distance from this new enemy, and protested, angry at this sudden attack:

"But we haven't even given you our answer!"

"What's wrong with you!? You're crazy! Leave us alone!" Espika screamed. Finster felt nervous, seeing his sister this angry was a rare sight.

"So, let me get this straight," the pigtailed girl answered with a indignant tone that Finster had problems guessing whether it was real or feigned, "you throw me to the ground, you get my socks dirty, and then expect me to let you go, just because?"

Finster could hear a particularly loud buzz in the area. It seemed to originate from this girl's fists. Generally, the sparks produced by lightning elementals made noises like this, although this one was louder. Perhaps this was due to the echo effect provided by this gigantic section of the forest.

Espika's stare became even angrier. It wasn't hard for Finster to read what was on her mind: 'You didn't even touch the ground, you prick.' After a while, she replied, keeping her eyes locked on the opponent's:

"If you aren't letting us be otherwise, then so be it."

"Espika…" Finster looked at her, worried.

"Now that's how I like it. At least you have some guts, unlike those other cowards," the opposing elemental replied, chuckling while the sound of her sparks got louder.

"Espika! I don't like this a bit! We can't let her touch us, no matter what!" Finster warned.

Without saying anything else, the girl leaped towards the Blumenthal siblings with her fists covered in her element.

"Level 2!" Espika shouted and called forth a wall of fire-proof plants in front of her and her brother. To her surprise, the plants started to burn down and melt when the enemy's punches connected. Both siblings could watch the arrogant smile of their opponent.

"Is she a lightning elemental? That… that looks like fire or magma…" Finster muttered in disbelief, unable to understand what he was seeing. His sister was just as bewildered as he was. What kind of opponent was this?

Noticing the confusion of her two opponents, the pigtailed girl laughed haughtily and looked at both of them in the eye:

"Since when does a simple lightning bolt make something burn like this?" she asked and grinned maliciously.

"A dual?" Finster asked, confused. "But they're extinct!"

There was no way they could be fighting against a dual, Finster was sure of this. In the Kingdom of Shiho, there had been a minority of elementals characterized by their skillful use of two elements, generally opposite ones. Due to their scarce numbers and their perceived advantage over the majority of the population, as well as the existence of groups who deemed their existence as something opposing the laws of nature, they were exiled to the wastelands of Jotunheim north of Genbu or mass-murdered. Word had it that the last remaining dual elementals of the kingdom had perished less than ten years ago.

"It's impossible that there are duals nowadays, they've gone extinct years ago! You must be lying," Espika added, staring down at her opponent.

Both Espika and Finster saw how she, without raising her tone of voice, answered:

"Let's find out."


	4. Starting Off With The Wrong Foot

Esper smirked defiantly at the two opponents she was now facing. These kinds of competitions were the perfect stage for her to give it her all without any trifling rules holding her back. Any poor schmuck lacking in ambition might accuse her of going too far, but as far as she was concerned, nothing was going to stand in her way.

Her hands were covered in her element, as sparks of indigo jumped out of them. She set her gaze towards the boy in black. She had made her choice: he was going to be the first to bite the dust. His defeat would only make her eventual victory over that other plant user all the sweeter.

In an instant, she ran towards the shadow elemental, who reacted by slipping through a dark portal. _How typical._ Any shadow elemental could create portals to instantly warp behind their opponents almost immediately. This did not go ignored by Esper, who vowed to show that fool who really deserved to win the whole tournament. She charged her left fist once again with a level 1 technique.

"Like hell I'm going to fall for that one!" she screamed out as she turned around to counterattack.

"You just did," Esper heard. Before she could properly react, she noticed her forearms were bound: her opponent had managed to stop her counterattack by turning her own arms into vines and tying them around Esper's forearms. This move had left Esper with a wide enough opening for the boy in black to reappear beside her and use his shadow-imbued fist to hit her cheek.

_Pow!_

Due to the strength of the blow, Esper flinched, but she kept her balance regardless. She was not going to let anyone or anything throw her to the floor, especially not a sucker punch like that one. She glared at both opponents while caressing her cheek. Feeling a bit of blood welling up inside her mouth, she spit it out before speaking:

"Not bad, kiddo. But you'll have to punch me harder next time," an even wider smirk formed on her face. That attack was effectively a declaration of war, and she was not going to ignore it just like that. Her fists once again were sparking in indigo, as she was preparing a new attack directed at a new target: Espika. She dashed towards the green-haired girl, making sure that she was going to get it for having set her up like that. She hated being taken for a fool.

Several roots emerged from underground in response to Esper's dash. Was this really her opponent's way of stopping her now? One of Esper's many fortes was her proficiency in acrobatics. This was nothing more than an insignificant obstacle for her. She merely leaped over the roots and got closer to her new target. Even more roots started to dig their way out, while she noticed that the shadow boy was conspicuously missing. The idiocy of the other contestants did not cease to surprise her, she could at least give them that much.

From within the shadows of the roots on the forest floor, the other opponent reappeared, with his fists covered in shadows. Esper could only smirk in response. It was plain to see that both of them had severely underestimated her intelligence. Oh, how she was going to enjoy this.

Screaming, Esper created an indigo stream of energy close to the boy. The attack hit, making his hoodie start to burn and melt down, forcing him to discard it instantly. The removal of the garment revealed that underneath he wore a short-sleeved black T-shirt featuring a cartoonish skull with bulging eyes and its tongue sticking out.

"This is a fire-based technique!" he screamed, only making Esper's smirk widen even more as she resumed her sprint towards the plant elemental.

"Take this!" Esper prepared a level 1 fist as she got even closer.

"Espika!" the shadow user yelled at his partner in combat.

As all of this happened, Esper noticed the way that Espika glared at her, and how she extended one of her vine-arms towards a high branch of a nearby tree. The green-haired opponent jumped and spun mid-air with the intent of attacking via a roundhouse kick. The twin-tailed girl could only chuckle when she witnessed this.

"You idiot!" Esper shouted as she protected herself using her fists, still covered in the level 1 technique. Espika's shin touched the stream of elemental energy and she fell to the floor while screaming. At that moment, it was made clear to her what happened if anything made contact with Esper's attacks: the upper portion of Espika's left boot had melted almost entirely, leaving what seemed to be a second-degree burn across her shin and ending on her ankle.

The remaining opponent ran towards Esper, this time holding a sickle in each hand. She had managed to anger him and this made her proud, as it was practically a badge of honor for her to do so in combat. Keeping a cool head, she dodged the attack and, using her acrobatic skills, she jumped and delivered a roundhouse kick. Her leg hit his head, knocking him to the ground and seemingly leaving him unconscious, since he didn't get up afterwards.

"What's that? Giving up already? I can't say that I'm surprised, not even you two can stand up to someone like me," Esper smirked once again, locking eyes with Espika. The latter could only return a stare full of horror, in light of what was going on, only seeing Esper slowly approach her. Esper had determined this battle was as good as over.

"It's time for me to claim my reward."

* * *

Kerket and Souji kept walking towards the quicksands, where the totem which would help the former pass to the next round was allegedly located. Both continued until they got close to their destination: a large area where there was barely any trees growing.

Souji pointed his finger at the large clearing.

"There is a totem over there."

Kerket could only raise an eyebrow in response, staring at the other elemental skeptically.

"Hm? How do you know that?" she asked. She couldn't shake the impression that this was a trap she was being led to by the bluehead. It was wise to trust no one, not even one's own shadow in these types of competitions and, besides, it would make no sense for someone to help a rival pass to the next round, not without asking something in return at the very least.

This question was met with a confused stare on Souji's behalf, who slightly tilted his head, seemingly attempting to understand why she asked that. Maybe he was one of those who was quick to trust others.

"I don't know… I feel it has to be here. It's like an affinity with my element."

"Uh-huh," Kerket replied with her arms crossed. There was something about this whole situation that she didn't like. This made it difficult for her to trust Souji. She knew very little about him, aside from what she witnessed in his combat with the duo of lightning and paper elementals. She decided it was thus sensible to ask him a few questions. "Speaking of which, what is your element? It doesn't seem to be anything I've seen before."

Kerket noticed the other elemental was concerned. She wondered if it was because he was in fact leading her to a trap or just because he didn't know how to react to her cold demeanor.

"I… I am… well, my element isn't a common one," Souji stuttered while looking down, before turning his gaze towards Kerket. "Slime. I'm a slime elemental."

Kerket kept looking at him. She wasn't at all familiar with slime elementals.

"Interesting," she answered succinctly.

Souji looked away and smiled to himself. A lone question came out of his lips:

"What element are you?"

Kerket kept her arms crossed and raised an eyebrow yet again. She didn't like it much when people asked her about her element. From her experience, elemental racism was an issue that affected her personally. For this reason, she tended to feel uncomfortable when sharing her elemental nature with others. Without blinking, she replied:

"I'm a fire elemental."

"Oh, one of the four fundamental elements! That's amazing!" Souji replied, unable to hide his enthusiasm. In the Kingdom of Shiho, it was common to categorize elements. Kerket considered this to be the base of the racism plaguing the kingdom's society. The four elements from which all other ones stemmed (fire, water, earth and air) were considered the most 'important' and, as was to be expected, the elementals that discriminated against others the most were users of these four elements.

Particularly marginalized were adepts of elements such as virus, snot and feces. Fire and water elementals, on the other hand, tended to enjoy kingdom-wide prestige and privileges. Nevertheless, it was said that there were no longer earth and air elementals in the kingdom, although there were users of elements that come from these two, such as plant, rock, lightning or vapor.

In a way, having a 'base' element helped when attempting to control derivative elements, given enough practice. That is, a water elemental could (at least in theory) learn to use ice through years and years of training. Likewise, a plant elemental, whose element is a derivative from earth, could learn to use derivative elements from plant such as wood or virus.

As per this line of logic, it was theorized that there existed a purported 'master element' from which all others derived and whose existence has been neither confirmed nor disproved by the kingdom's top researchers. If there were anybody who had said power at their disposal, they would be capable of controlling every existing element. Sometimes Kerket wondered what would happen if someone like that actually existed, but a part of her knew that said person might only find hate and people willing to get rid of them due to being perceived as a threat. Unfortunately, things sometimes were like this.

"Well," Souji interrupted her thoughts. Kerket noticed how he stared across the quicksands, "normally it's very difficult to reach the middle of it to get the totem. But…"

Kerket's eyes met Souji's.

"This is no problem for me at all," he smiled. "I can go there and get you the totem. That way, we'll be one step closer to fulfilling our dreams."

Those words were an instant red flag for Kerket. As hard as she tried thinking about the reasons, she was unable to find any logical explanation as to why somebody who had just met her minutes ago wanted to help her without anything in exchange. Still skeptic, she raised her eyebrow a third time and answered:

"You?" she pointed at him. "You'll really do this for me?" this time she pointed at herself. "But why? I'm still your rival in this tournament."

Yet again, Souji shied away and looked at the ground.

"If I can make somebody happy, that's all that matters to me. I think we should leave our mark in other people's hearts, even if they are just strangers in the end." A friendly giggle came out of his lips. "Besides, if you make it to the next round, this would mean we would meet again some day."

Kerket was unable to say anything else. She didn't know what it was exactly, but something inside her was telling her he was trustworthy, as he seemed open and sincere. She felt her face was turning red, but was hoping Souji wouldn't notice. It was a strange situation for her. After all, she wasn't the sort of person who went out and talked to everyone who crossed paths with her, so she had nobody she could call a friend aside from Esper.

After a few seconds trying to think of what to say, Kerket just sighed and looked away while smiling slightly.

"If you're telling the truth… You're too good for this horrible world."

Through the corner of her eye, Kerket could see that Souji smiled back at her melancholically.

"My… brother tells me that a lot. He says I'm too naïve and that I'm going to learn not to be so trusting the hard way. Still, I believe that there are people out there with good hearts and… call me silly, but I believe yours is made of gold. I don't know why, but that's how I feel. That is why I want to offer you my help."

Kerket turned her head to look at him, still keeping her arms crossed, but changing her face to one of sadness.

"Your brother is right, there is a lot of cruel people in this world." This was something that saddened Kerket, since it brought memories she didn't want to remember in the middle of the competition. "But… that doesn't mean that's all there is out there. People like you are indeed a breath of fresh air."

Kerket didn't like to see the other boy looking so down, but she didn't know what else to say in a situation like this one.

"And thank you, but… I wouldn't be sure that I have a good heart. I'm no angel, that's for sure."

Souji looked at her with a worried expression. For a moment, Kerket could catch a glimpse of what seemed to be deep sorrow in his eyes.

"But we all deserve redemption. Maybe your past has forced you to be cruel, but your future self doesn't have to be this way. Whatever it is you're going through, you'll always have people who'll stand by you despite your flaws. At least that is what my mother says," Souji smiled at this last bit. "So don't get yourself down, you're worth more than you realize."

Kerket remained in silence for a minute. For the first time, she was unable to look away. If she was unable to conjure up what to say before, now she was completely lost for words. She could only turn her face down and mutter:

"Your mother is a wise woman. I can see where her son got his wisdom from…"

Souji kept offering his warm smile.

"You can trust me. What we have to do is…"

A distant noise called the attention of both.

"Watch out!" Souji screamed. Two hands appeared from the quicksands to strike them both. Kerket and Souji managed to react on time; while Kerket cloaked her fists in flames, Souji transformed his arms into slime.

"I was getting bored with your chit-chat, as important as it might have been to you both," at one side of the quicksands, a woman approached. She was somewhat older than both Kerket and Souji and wore an ochre cape, black trousers and brown boots. Her dark brown hair was put into two small pigtails and her likewise brown eyes, stared at both of them down. Several mud tendrils appeared from the quicksands and started flailing behind the woman.

"This totem belongs to me," she smirked condescendingly.

Both elementals readied themselves for the next battle of the day.


	5. Deadly Mud Fight of Doom

Kerket and Souji watched as many tendrils —Kerket counted over a dozen of them— emerged from the quicksands to strike them. While she had managed to dodge, she could see that one of them hit Souji. The strength of the blow was such that he was sent flying to a distance where trees were growing.  
"Damn it…" Kerket growled. Losing the other boy this quick was certainly inconvenient, as she no longer counted with strength in numbers.  
"Hah!" the new opponent dashed towards Kerket charging a level 1 fist. It was clear as day that her arm was transformed into mud. Kerket reacted on time and countered with a level 2 flame. Her intent was to defeat this new opponent to check on Souji. Luckily he wouldn't have any serious injuries on him.  
Kerket's attack connected and burned away some of the opponent's cape. The latter fighter stepped away and stared at Kerket.  
"Fire elemental, meet the one who will defeat you. My name is Laspia Mudame, Warrior of Mud."  
"Go boast to someone who cares, you messed with the wrong person," Kerket gave her a _glare_ that left something clear: she wouldn't hesitate in finishing her off if it came down to it. Without uttering a single word, she created five fireballs around her through a level 2 technique.  
"May the battle begin," Laspia smiled. In front of her, a humanoid mud figure emerged. Its legs were disproportionately smaller in comparison to the rest of its body. Its arms were the size of its upper body, giving it a somewhat hunched over posture. "Meet Mr. Muddy, my pet. He will be the instrument I shall use to seal your fate. Mr. Muddy, protect yourself against her attacks!"  
Kerket recognized this as a technique belonging to the so-called 'level A'. There were certain techniques that couldn't be categorized in any of the five basic levels of elemental usage. For this reason, there were special distinctions for said techniques. Generally speaking, level A was the classification used for techniques related to the link between elementals and animals or other beings of difficult categorization, typically related to the user's own element. Some of them were based around the use of summons —such was the case of Laspia and Mr. Muddy—, whereas others enabled their users to modify their own bodies to look similar to the creature which they have pacted with and granting them additional techniques that couldn't normally be used otherwise. In some cases, level A techniques were hereditary, but other times, they could be accessed through a pact.  
It didn't seem like it would be too difficult to defeat it, Kerket thought. She noticed that the muddy being had crossed its gigantic arms in front of it in a defensive stance. After a brief glance, she sprinted towards it and, putting more energy to her fireballs, she fired them to several parts of the summoned construct's body.  
The attack was a success, judging by her rival's surprised face. The fireballs had managed to inflict considerable damage to Mr. Muddy, who started to melt due to the scorching temperatures.  
Satisfied that her fiery attack was very effective, Kerket continued with the same tactic. The next time, she approached the monster even more and jumped to use another level 2 technique, this time directed at Mr. Muddy's torso. Fire escaped from her right hand, impacting the enemy and melting it some more. Nevertheless, it seemed it would still take a bit more to finish the job.  
"No!" Laspia screamed, furious at the relative ease in which Kerket seemed to be dealing with her summon. From the quicksands more whip-like tendrils emerged, flailing erratically. "Let's see if you can put up with this!"  
Kerket didn't expect her opponent to attack once again with the muddy tendrils. She was unable to dodge due to her focus on the monster, thus one of them struck her in an arm and made her flinch a bit.  
"Ha, ha! Not so confident now, are you?!" Laspia laughed and mocked Kerket with a self-satisfied smirk.  
Kerket did not see the need to waste breath by answering the provocation. She decided to analyze the situation instead, as she observed both the half-melted monster and the flailing tendrils from afar. She had to calculate a strategy to defeat both opponents while suffering the least damage possible to survive the remaining hour of the forest trial.  
"What's wrong?! Are you so scared you can't even move?!"  
Kerket remained quiet and, once more, she ran towards Mr. Muddy. This time, the flames she summoned were directed at the tendrils; for this occasion, more moles were put into the attack. This managed to solidify them at the moment they hit. Without that obstacle, she finally got to the monster.  
"The bigger they are…" she focused her energy into a large fire blast towards Mr. Muddy's base, which was solidified and subsequently crumbled down due to the beast's weight, "...the harder they fall."  
Once Mr. Muddy's base crumbled, the creature fell and the level A summon was undone. This left an astonished Laspia on her own, who observed as her summon lost against Kerket while a grimace of anger formed across her face.  
"No." Laspia muttered, before screaming. "This cannot be! There's no way you could have defeated Mr. Muddy so easily!"  
"And yet that's what I've done," Kerket approached Laspia slowly, applying more moles to create a fireball in her left hand. "Anything else to say? Or would you prefer to leave with whatever dignity you have left?"  
Laspia could only keep glaring while gnashing her teeth. With a single handwave, a spiky mud wall appeared right in front of her opponent, with the spikes being merely centimeters away from the brunette's face. It seemed she really was desperate to keep her dignity, Kerket thought.  
"Enough games."  
She threw the fireball towards the muddy wall, making it melt and, with a single punch, she destroyed the muddy spikes. She got in front of Laspia and grabbed her by the neck of the cape she wore. She made sure to lock eyes with her as she did so.  
"You'd better leave and not let me see you again if you want to make it to the end of this round in one piece. Understood?"  
It seemed the intimidation had its intended effect on Laspia, who could only grunt in response.  
Kerket let go of her and, keeping her gaze over Laspia, she observed how she left without saying anything else.  
With one problem less, all that was left was to check on Souji and try to retrieve the totem from where it supposedly was. Kerket turned around to find the slime elemental. To her surprise, however, he was approaching her without the need of her looking for him.  
"Here, I got it for you. It's the least I can do to thank you for saving me from her," he smiled, displaying a shiny, gold object in his hands.  
Unable to say anything and without thinking it twice, she took the totem off Souji's hands. The search was finally over for her. Souji couldn't help but giggle in a friendly manner.  
"Congratulations on making it to the next round. All we have to do now is wait," the blue-haired boy gesticulated, attempting to convey he was leaving. "What will you be doing until then?"  
"Hey, hold on a second," Kerket grabbed him by the arm to prevent him from leaving. There was something that bothered her about the situation. "That girl just sent you flying over several meters. How can you be standing here like nothing? There's no way you could've gotten out of something like that unharmed."  
Souji looked at himself in response. Beside a few dirt stains and a couple of bruises, there was nothing too bad.  
"Well, maybe I just got lucky. The most important thing is that nobody got hurt, don't you think?"  
Kerket could only look at him from head to toe. What she was witnessing was frankly amazing, but decided to leave any sort of skepticism aside. After sighing, she nodded.  
"Yeah, at least we're fine."  
Souji looked back at Kerket. He seemed to be hesitating a bit to speak, but after a deep breath, he said:  
"You can come with me if you like, or if you want to talk about anything until the final whistle is sounded.  
Kerket hesitated for a while. She didn't know what to do with this proposal. By nature, she was someone who preferred being alone, but there wasn't much to do in the final hour of the trial. Besides, he _did _help her to find the golden statue. At least she could pay him in kind by keeping him company.  
"Well, why not?" she smiled slightly. "It's better than being on your own."  
"That settles it, then." Souji smiled and suddenly grabbed one of Kerket's hands with both of his. "May this edition of the League bring lifelong memories."  
Once he let go of her, he pointed to the direction opposite the quicksands.  
"Let's head there," he looked at Kerket and gestured. He seemed to be waiting for her to move to his side to walk together side by side, like earlier. Kerket remained confused with all of this, but she didn't find it all that unpleasant anymore. Smiling, she walked until she was beside Souji.  
"Let's go, then."  
Kerket couldn't tell if Souji was indeed her friend, since she found it difficult to fully trust others. Nevertheless, she had the feeling that he wasn't really a bad person. She kept staring at him through the corner of her eye as both left through a tree-lined zone, leaving the quicksands behind.

* * *

Espika helplessly watched how the girl with twin tails approached her slowly, while keeping her eyes locked with hers. A smirk was placed on the latter's face.  
Fear, anger, pain and worry were the only things on Espika's mind now. She had received a very painful burn in one of her legs; she had already gotten burns fighting against fire and magma elementals, but this was a degree of pain she wasn't used to at all. Her brother wasn't getting up, and she had a powerful opponent who was about to take her totem away from her, effectively forcing her to be back to square one.  
"Oh! Don't tell me! Not that cocky anymore, huh?" Esper's smirk grew even more. Her fists were covered in that element that had so hurt Espika's leg.  
Whatever she did, she couldn't let her get any closer. She had to think of something. She could use a level 2 technique to create a shield or even more roots to hamper her opponent's progress, but all of this hadn't worked until now. What could she do in a situation like this?  
Espika's eyes moved downwards until she noticed something: her opponent's legs were unprotected. The other girl's hands might have represented a threat, but her overconfidence might have left her legs exposed to any counterattack. Espika started to concentrate a large number of moles to the ground, in what was to be her last resort.  
Just as the purple-haired girl got close to her, roots emerged from underground and enveloped her legs. The roots were particularly strong, to the point that Espika used them to pull the other girl downwards in an attempt to stop her in her tracks. Without being able to escape the move, she was pulled downwards and buried to her chest.  
Blue, wrathful eyes stared directly at Espika's. The plan worked for the plant elemental, who smiled at seeing the success of the tactic.  
"Damn you," the twin-tailed girl growled, trying to free herself from the roots without any success, "it seems I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson."  
Espika theorized (or at least hoped) that it would be difficult for her opponent's element to flow correctly underground. If her theory was correct, it would take a lot of time for her opponent to slip away from the roots and make her escape. She had to try to wake her brother up and make a run for it before the enemy could free herself. She offered a weak smile as she stood up slowly, something which cost a bit due to the unbearable pain of her right leg.  
"Good luck with that," she said, using more of her power to constrict the enemy with her roots and prevent her escape. She limped over to her brother to check on him.  
Finster was lying down on the ground, with both of his eyes closed. When Espika got closer, her heart started pounding out of worry that the damage inflicted upon him was serious. She shook him a bit to see if he reacted in any way, as her psychic connection with him suggested that the hit he took wasn't that strong and that he would make it out of this one.  
"Ugh… this is worse than a lizard running you over," Finster muttered as he opened his eyes.  
"Well," Espika smiled at him, "it seems _you_'ll be okay. Come on, let's get out of here before…"  
"He, he… Never turn your back on the enemy!" the twin-tailed girl screamed from where she was. Espika turned around to see what was going on. She saw that her opponent was sparkling in indigo and, due to her elemental sympathy, Espika noticed that the roots were quickly disappearing. There was now no chance she could escape with her brother.  
Being unable to do anything else, she locked eyes with her opponent and, predicting something was about to happen, she used a level 2 technique to create a shield made of plants.  
At that moment, the largest explosion in the history of the Azure Dragon Forest took place.  
Espika remained behind her shield, protecting her against stones and the remains of roots that flew in her direction due to the force of the explosion. The sound of the explosion had managed to wake up Finster with a start. Through her plant shield, Espika could observe the twin-tailed girl, whose clothing was somewhat damaged due to the explosion, but did not look any worse for the wear. Indeed, as it had happened many times before, she had landed on her feet.  
"Not bad, plant girl," the twin-tailed girl stared at her with an expression rife with rage. "We may be surrounded by your element, but don't forget…"  
Her arms started sparking in an indigo color one more time. Espika reacted by putting more moles into her wall to increase its defensive capabilities. She couldn't afford to lose, not here, not now.  
"...I'm still stronger than you!" the twin-tailed opponent declared out loud before running towards her.  
A charged fist was enough for the plant shield to start burning down. Nevertheless, Espika noticed her wall was melting slower and slower over time. Maybe the other girl had used up many of her moles in an attempt to escape from her cage of roots.  
Espika heard her brother stand up behind her, not turning away due to her attention being set on her opponent. She felt a hand on her shoulder, to which she glanced sideways. Her brother's black eyes told her everything she wanted to know. She nodded slightly as he disappeared through a shadow portal, before focusing her attention on the other girl once again. She prepared herself mentally for what she expected was to be the final round of the battle.  
"This is the end!" Esper screamed as her level 1 fists disintegrated Espika's shield of plants and roots.  
"For you," Espika smiled.  
"Yo! Forgot about me already!?" Finster warped right behind the twin-tailed girl and used shadows to bind her arms and legs to restrict her movement. This earned him a stare of pure anger.  
"You…" she growled, trying in vain to escape from the dark bindings.  
Espika had to take advantage of this moment to hit her with all she had. She couldn't keep on fighting like this, the pain in her leg was excruciating, she was running out of time and she still had to help search for her brother's totem. With some effort, she used moles to push part of the root shield and hit her opponent in the right check.  
The attack hit. The strength of the hit was such that the opponent was sent flying a few meters until she hit a tree. It was the first time she hadn't landed gracefully after getting hit.  
Espika looked at her brother in the eyes. Both were panting, incapable of believing what had happened.  
"Did… did we win…?" Finster muttered, before running with arms wide open towards his sister, who smiled in return.  
"That was a low blow…" a voice distracted both Blumenthal siblings. It was the twin-tailed elemental yet again, who was standing up slowly. Her fists were again sparking in indigo, as she directed a spiteful look to both of them. "It caught me by surprise, I'll give you _that_ much." She then spit what Espika guessed was blood due to the strength of her hit.  
Something caught Espika's eye immediately.  
A gargantuan figure had approached the place from behind her opponent. It wielded a gigantic hammer which it held up high with the seeming intent to attack her.  
"Look out!" Finster screamed and created a portal to instantly warp beside the other girl to push her away from the oncoming hammer. The strength of the impact was such that, when it hit the ground, bits of stones flew.  
"What the fuck!?" the girl screamed in confusion at what was going on.  
Espika remained stunned for a second, observing the creature. Her mind was going fast trying to think clearly. She knew perfectly well what kind of creature it was. It was a specimen of a breed of monsters easily distinguishable by their impressive physical constitution, heads similar to those of a goat, and mallets that were about the size of their large bodies. The fur on their heads was unique in that it was rather short at the front, yet long at the back, resembling a hairstyle once popular in the kingdom. They lived in small populations in the depths of the Azure Dragon Forest and their ferocity was such that it was said that one of them was capable of squaring off against one of the ice and stone giants of Jotunheim, the cold and desolate no man's land north of the kingdom.  
Finster was lying on the ground with the other girl. He too recognized the new arrival. His eyes opened wide and screamed:  
"It's a Mallet Goatee!"


	6. Goat Simulator: Seiryu Special Edition

A loud and powerful boom shook the forest's trees. The noise was similar to a pack of dynamite being blown up at a distance, maybe a bit more than just that because both Kerket and Souji could notice it even more than a mile away from where the noise originated.

The raven-haired girl kept silent as she looked at the direction where she had heard the explosion. Her only worry at that moment wasn't the explosion itself, but rather _who_ was behind it. It was possible that it was all due to a gunpowder elemental, but she couldn't shake a certain feeling she had in her mind.  
'Please don't let it be who I think it is.'

"An explosion? Who could have caused it?" Souji asked. He seemed to be shocked due to the sudden boom, judging by the way he looked at Kerket. "I think we should go and take a look."

Kerket then looked back at him for a moment. She didn't see the point in getting close to a possible threat, though everything seemed to point out that the one responsible was a certain twin-tailed girl with issues in controlling her hair-trigger temperament.

"Let's go then, but don't let your guard down," Kerket nodded.

Both immediately moved towards the source of the noise: the depths of the forest.

* * *

Two things crossed Esper's mind when Finster pushed her to the ground to avoid her being crushed by the attack. The first was that, indeed, the creature who had attacked her by surprise was huge and that it could be an issue if its mallet managed to hit her. The second thing: she was on the ground with that shadow prick on top of her.

"Get your hands off me!" Esper screamed, shoving the other boy and making him hit the ground.  
"Hey!" he answered while sitting on the forest floor, more disappointed than angry in light of the 'thank you' he received. "At least you could be less indignant about it!"  
A roar interrupted their argument, followed by the gigantic mallet falling down again. This time, a wall of plants and vines absorbed the impact and managed to stop the attack.  
"Don't get distracted!" Espika screamed, sweating due to the exhaustion of keeping the mallet in place with a long-distance technique.

Finster stood up and warped to his sister. Esper stepped backwards right when Espika's plant shield crumbled down. The twin-tailed girl was irritated due to the attitude of the other two elementals. Who in the world did the green-haired girl think she was to boss her around? Nevertheless, she wasn't in the mood to argue, seeing that she had a new challenger to take care of.

"A goat man with a mullet, eh?" Esper said, analyzing the beast who observed the three of them while growling.

"A Mallet Goatee," Finster commented from behind her. "It's one of the most dangerous monsters in the forest. They're quite territorial and… it seems we _goat_ a problem with this one."

Esper directed a brief look of pure disgust at the shadow boy through the corner of her eye before looking back at the monster. Part of her wanted to believe she had misheard things and this moron did _not_ just go ahead and told a cringeworthy pun, given the circumstances. Maybe she did mishear, but she suspected he tried to taunt her through dumb wordplay. No, she wasn't going to let him get her goat. Rather, she was going to get that _other_ goat and defeat it, beat the crap out of those plant and shadow idiots —not necessarily in that order— and move on to the next round with full honors. She approached the opponent slowly, locking her eyes with the beast's as a clear sign of provocation.  
"You two stay back and watch how a true professional gets stuff done," Esper said while her fists were imbued in indigo energy.

* * *

Finster remained dumbfounded seeing the twin-tailed girl not just being arrogant enough to start a fight with a Mallet Goatee, of all creatures, but actually approaching it all alone.  
"Finster! Don't let her attack it on her own!" his sister called out. Despite everything that had happened, it seemed that his sister wasn't going to let her attacker be hurt. He couldn't help being worried by the burn she sustained on her right leg, but neither she nor he would leave this other girl to fight by herself, so he wasn't going to complain either way.

"Alright!" Finster nodded and got close to the other girl. "Yo! I don't know what you're thinking, but you can't fight against a Mallet Goatee all by yourself!"

"Don't get in my way then," she answered, not even deigning to look at him, and started her attack against the monster, running towards it with her sparking fists.

"Welp, can't say I didn't try," Finster sighed and drew his two sickles from within a dark portal. Holding on in each hand, he warped behind the beast to initiate an improvised pincer attack.

At the same time, Espika summoned roots that enveloped the Mallet Goatee's legs. A couple more held its arms in place, preventing it from attacking for a while. Its movements were restricted and any attempt at defending itself from the attacks on both flanks were likewise hampered.

For this occasion, Finster opted to use a level 3 technique. Unlike the first two levels, level 3 implied the use of a so-called 'elemental weapon', generally defined as any given object to which one's own element is added to make it acquire additional properties and new abilities. Executing techniques at this level took at least a decade of training, to the point that it was unusual to see people younger than sixteen using them. Indeed, a mandatory condition to be eligible for participation in the League of Elementals was being capable of using level 3 techniques. For this reason, only a relative minority of the inhabitants of Shiho could participate in the tournament.

Shadows enveloped both sickles and started to flow erratically around them, similar to dark flames. Due to it being a technique that used up more moles than even creating dark portals, the damage these weapons dealt would increase. Nevertheless, Finster knew well enough that Mallet Goatees were by far the most fearsome creatures in the Seiryu Region, if not in the entire kingdom. It would take more than a level 3 to take this one down.

As it was to be expected, at least from Finster's behalf, his techniques were not very effective against the Mallet Goatee. His sickles barely made a scratch and it seemed the other girl's fists —the very same ones that melted Espika's plants as if nothing— didn't make much of a difference either. Rather, it seemed that the opponent was completely focused on freeing itself from its root bindings rather than bothering with the incoming attacks.

The twin-tailed girl, clearly annoyed for not inflicting enough damage, created a level 2 ray. The attack struck the Mallet Goatee's shoulder, this time the monster roared due to the visible injury it left. Finster immediately looked at his sister, who nodded at him, and continued his assault on the beast's back. The roots that kept the monster in place were constricting it with even more force: while Espika's injury meant her participating in melee battles was a no-go, it didn't mean she was unable to help out by manipulating her element from a distance.

The monster roared and, instead of using its mallet, it threw a punch towards the girl. The strength of the beast was such that it managed to break the roots that tied its arm with one swing.

Finster was about to scream out so she got out of the way, but her reaction speed was fast enough to let her dodge even before he could warn her. Rage was the emotion that the shadow elemental noticed in the girl's face as she ran towards the Mallet Goatee and hit it once. It seemed it did not have much of an effect, but his intuition told him she was up to something.

_One._

He knew the monster was distracted by her —with the suspicion that the injury she inflicted was enough for it to focus on the offender—, so he decided to try something else.

"Level 2!" he screamed dramatically, before a shadow held the monster's feet in place. These shadows and Espika's roots made the Mallet Goatee a sitting duck for that girl who was falling back and preparing a second attack. It was clear that she was the only one out of them three who could deal considerable damage with her techniques. However, he needed to be sure the opponent was unable to move at all.

_Two._

"Espi!" Finster looked at his sister from where he was. "Use your level 2!"

"Understood!" she nodded, before forming a cloud of spores from a distance which drifted through the air to reach the beast.

_Three._

After receiving a third spark-imbued punch, the Mallet Goatee roared. It didn't seem to be paying any attention at all to its other two attackers, being fully focused on the one attacking it from the frontside. This was the perfect situation for the spores to have their intended effect.

_Four._

When the fourth fist connected, the spores had seemingly managed to move their way into the beast. The paralyzing effect of the level 2 technique hampered its movements and made any counterattack capabilities be effectively nonexistent. This would have been a good moment to make a run for it, but nothing guaranteed it wouldn't start moving again in no time at all.

"Five!" screaming victoriously, the twin-tailed elemental used her fist to hit the chest of a stunned Mallet Goatee a fifth time.

To Finster's surprise, she didn't follow up on a sixth blow. Instead of continuing with her assault, she stepped away at a high speed. Finster observed the Mallet Goatee and noticed that something started to form in its body…

"Oh, no."

A massive explosion enveloped the beast, with such strength that even the air itself seemed to be electrified due to the attack's power. Many trees were burned black and many more fell down, burying the Mallet Goatee and any unfortunate soul who happened to be near it...

* * *

"Finster!" Espika screamed, scared to death at what just happened. She got out of her hiding spot, limping due to the damage her leg had sustained earlier. No, he couldn't be dead, she knew there was no way he had died.

A dark portal opened beside her, from which her brother stepped out. He had a few light burn marks for having made his escape at the nick of time, but overall he was in a good state.

"I'm okay," he offered her a thumbs up along with his trademark smile.

Far from keeping her calm, Espika turned around with a furious glare towards the other girl. How could she be this rash?

"Are you out of your mind?! He could have gotten killed!"

"Oh… I'm sorry, _Espi_," the twin-tailed girl replied. It was obvious she was taunting her due to the clearly fake way she put on a guilt-ridden expression and the sarcastic tone she had used while uttering the nickname Finster used for her, "but I told him not to get in my way. Besides, he can just create one of those portals and leave."

"So what?! He might have not escaped in time! Don't you care that you could have killed someone!?" Espika's anger was increasing. She couldn't believe she was even having this conversation.

"But nothing happened to him, right?" in sharp contrast with the green-haired girl, the twin-tailed elemental kept her calm and continued mocking her. She turned around to look at the fallen monster and then back at Espika and her brother, while once again covering her fists with sparks. "This is the end of our little truce. Don't think you're getting away this time."

Espika felt anxious at that moment. She was unable to fight against her like this. She could try using level 2 spores, but it was unlikely to work due to the other girl's reflexes and speed. What could she do?

"Aw, man," Finster sighed and prepared his level 3 sickles once again, "and there I was hoping you weren't that much of a meanie."

"Esperanza Molniya! What is going on here!?"

Espika and Finster turned around to see the source of that voice. From the other point of the battlefield, emerged a girl with black hair whose tips were red. Accompanying her was another person with sky blue hair in a ponytail who had an expression of bewilderment. The look that black-haired girl had was a mix between amazement and outrage, which she kept as she approached the twin-tailed girl. Espika noticed that any hostility the latter had was simply gone at the moment.

"Oh, umm… I…" Finster tried to intervene to make the situation any less awkward than it was, and could only look from Espika to the twin-tailed girl and then to the two new arrivals. Espika did exactly the same, making it clear to her brother that she didn't have a clue about what was going on either.

"Well, I just blew up a monster and I was about to fight with these two over here," the twin-tailed girl replied, while pouting less aggressively than what Espika and Finster had witnessed until now, "And I told you not to call me by my full name, Kerket."

"Esperanza, huh?" Finster interrupted, "You're pretty strong, so no wonder you're _Expert_anza."

"Finster, no…" Espika groaned and tried to keep her brother quiet, albeit too late. One of Finster's biggest flaws was his verbal impulsivity added to his tendency of making really, really bad attempts at puns.

"You wanna die, you fuckwit?!" Esperanza, which was that other girl's name, newly displayed her full rage. Indigo sparks flew from her fists, in a clear sign of war.

"You're not doing anything," Kerket interrupted, arms akimbo, with a slightly sterner tone of voice, indicating she wasn't in the mood for games. "You're coming with me, you've caused enough of a mess around here as it is."

"Pl-pleased to meet you…!" the blue-haired elemental who came along with Kerket immediately bowed in respect before the others. Espika had barely noticed this elemental's presence until now. "I see you know each other already."

Espika could only muster a handwave after a few seconds of looking at him without saying a word.

"Hi, I'm Espika."

"Hey, stranger! Finster's the name!" he greeted with a cheeky smile.

"And who's that, Kerket?" Esperanza directed yet another glare to the one accompanying her friend. She undid her level 1 technique and crossed her arms. "Making friends with the enemy, I see."

This particular brand of aggressivity received an answer with another bow from the blue-haired elemental.

"I am Souji. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"I met Souji a while ago and was a huge help in finding my totem. We've been roaming around the forest since," Kerket explained. Espika noticed that her stare left something clear: she really was in no mood for an argument and, indeed, Kerket seemed to keep Esperanza's temper in check.

"So… you'll pass to the next round. With help," a dumbfounded Esperanza replied. "Wow. I… don't know what to think…"

"Something's telling me we're all forgetting something important," Finster placed a hand on his chin, in an exaggerated thinking expression.

A roar interrupted the scene, followed by the noise of several burned trees being crushed by a large beast with a goat head, who immediately picked its equally imposing mallet off the ground. It had visible burn marks all over its body, as well as an intense aura of rage. Espika could only offer a dull response:

"Maybe it was getting out of here before it got back up."


End file.
